Elk downs helicopter as crew tries to capture it near Utah reservoir

Related

An elk downed a helicopter Monday afternoon as the chopper's two-person crew attempted to net the animal near Currant Creek Reservoir in Wasatch County, Utah. The crew suffered minor injuries, but the elk was killed.

By
Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

WASATCH COUNTY, Utah
—

A helicopter crashed Monday afternoon in Utah’s Wasatch County, taken down by an elk that its crew was trying to capture.

Officials with Wasatch County Search & Rescue said on Facebook that the two-member crew walked away from the crash with minor injuries. The crash took place near Currant Creek Reservoir, which is about 85 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

“The Australian flight crew was in the process of netting a cow elk, which jumped and hit the tail rotor of the helicopter,” according to a statement from Wasatch County Search & Rescue. “This almost severed the tail rotor and ended the flight of this chopper.”

The crew members, who received cuts and bruises, were treated by paramedics from nearby Fruitland and were expected to be fine.

“As for the chopper, not so good,” the statement read. “Not something you see every day when an elk brings down a chopper.”

The helicopter was contracted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, according to KUTV in Salt Lake City. A spokeswoman for the DWR told the news station that the elk was killed in the crash.

The crew planned to sedate the elk and fly it to have a tracking collar placed on it for later study by biologists, the news station said.